Back in 1978, I was admitted to Northwestern Polytechnical University.

Chapter 130 Northwestern Polytechnical University CAD 1.0th Edition

Snap! The circuit board was pried open, and it turned out to be layered! One side was thicker than the other.

Upon opening the interior, similar printed circuitry was revealed!

Everyone's eyes widened.

"Impossible, impossible, how could there be a circuit in there?"

"Yes, circuit boards can only have two layers at most, this..."

Click!

Ni Gong pried open the thicker side again, and the same printing lines appeared in the middle once more! Including the two outer layers, there were a total of... four layers!
How did you do that? How did you insert the copper foil from the circuit board in the middle? And how did you align it vertically when drilling the holes?

No wonder our circuit boards aren't working properly. Ours only has two sides, but these boards have four! Damn it!
"This is a trap set by Northwestern Polytechnical University, isn't it?" Fan Tongxue gritted her teeth. "If they hadn't told us, how would we have known there were four layers!"

Engineer Ni shook his head: "No, no, modern electronic devices contain a large number of chips and require a large number of interconnecting wires. When double-layer boards are not enough, multi-layer board structures are developed. In the West, these four-layer boards have been used in computers for ten years. However, our Eastern electronic technology is backward, and no unit in the country is researching this multi-layer board interconnection technology."

"Mr. Ni, do you think we can simplify this circuit board into two layers?" Fan Tongyu asked.

They now know the problems with this computer. Fortunately, only three sets of chips failed, which they can still afford. The next issue is how to continue the replication.

As Mr. Ni just said, no company in the country makes this kind of circuit board, so their factory certainly can't either. If they want to imitate it now, they can only simplify it to a two-layer board.

Engineer Ni shook his head: "Impossible, unless... tens of thousands of flying wires are used."

Computer circuit boards are neat and tidy, with an industrial aesthetic. However, if there is a problem with the design, external wires are needed to fix it. Extra wires appearing on the neat circuit board are called flying wires.

In later generations, those who use shortcuts and tricks will suffer great damage to their reputation after being exposed, becoming "shortcut scandals" that their competitors will always talk about.

That was only using one or two wires. Now, there are tens of thousands! If even one wire is soldered incorrectly or has a poor solder joint, the computer is ruined!

"Then let's..."

Engineer Ni shook his head: "Your factory can't produce this kind of circuit board, so... let's just forget about it."

"Let it go? No, no, absolutely not! Our factory needs to produce 8086 microcomputers, and our factory is the number one computer factory in China! It's all that damn Northwestern Polytechnical University's fault... Engineer Ni, can your Institute of Computing Technology help us..."

"No." Engineer Ni shook his head decisively. "The Institute of Computing Technology's research funding is extremely tight. There's simply no spare capacity to develop the 8086 microcomputer. Besides, Northwestern Polytechnical University has already developed it. If we were to do it, it would just be repetitive work." After saying that, he glanced at the circuit board again. He really hadn't expected Northwestern Polytechnical University to have such advanced technology. He had to go and see it, immediately!
Northwestern Polytechnical University, Department of Mathematics, Computer Lab.

Snapped!
Yang Duo'er's slender, pale fingers tapped the Enter key. Okay, done!
On the screen, countless characters flashed, then disappeared, revealing a line of large text: Northwestern Polytechnical University CAD Version 1.0!
CAD is an abbreviation for Computer Aided Design. In later generations, the most widely used one is AutoCAD, which was developed by Autodesk and first released in 1982. Now, Northwestern Polytechnical University CAD is definitely the world's first CAD software to run on a microcomputer!

The core components, including the application menu, quick access toolbar, ribbon, command bar, status bar, and drawing area, all appeared on the screen!

"That's great! That's great! Now we'll have our own software for design!" Qin Liang exclaimed excitedly. "We'll feel much more at ease using our own!"

"That's right, we've finally developed a brand new design software!" Yang Duo'er stood up and opened her arms: "Come on, let's hug."

Before Qin Liang could react, Yang Duo'er hugged him. The others stared wide-eyed. Although they all had the same yellow skin and black eyes, this foreigner was so open-minded!

"Thank you for your hard work, Duoduo!" Qin Liang's words of gratitude came from the bottom of his heart. Of course, next, he could go find Zhu Xianghua and the others and give them hugs one by one, so he wouldn't have to be so eccentric!

"Excuse me, is Qin Liang here?" Just then, a voice rang out from the doorway.

Qin Liang looked outside and saw a middle-aged man standing there. He was about forty years old, wearing a Zhongshan suit, and was somewhat thin. Behind his thick glasses, his eyes were exceptionally bright.

Mr. Ni!
The moment Qin Liang guessed his identity, he felt his eyes well up with tears!
In the 1980s, Mr. Ni was invited by Canada to be a visiting scholar. At that time, his annual salary was 43,000 Canadian dollars. The exchange rate between the Canadian dollar and the US dollar was almost one to one!
Years later, when he returned to China, he used a shipping container. It didn't contain refrigerators, color TVs, or washing machines; instead, it was full of computer chips and various other equipment!
After returning to China, Mr. Ni developed the Chinese character card. The famous L-Think started his business with the Chinese character card. Unfortunately, when Mr. Ni wanted to use the company's profits to develop chips and domestic computer systems, he was ousted. However, Mr. Ni did not lose heart. He mustered his courage and continued to develop chips!
The chip company failed, the integrated circuit academy failed, and everyone else gave up. Only Mr. Ni is still wandering around Zhongguancun, talking about chips whenever he sees someone!
In his eighties, he rode a dilapidated bicycle, lived in a rented house, and his daily meals consisted of a part-time cook preparing lunch, reheating leftovers for dinner, and having eggs and milk for breakfast...

Such people are truly free from vulgar interests; they are true scientists, and truly dedicated seniors who have devoted their lives to the development of the motherland's science and technology industry!
"Brother Liangzi, Brother Liangzi!"

Hearing the voice beside him, Qin Liang finally realized what was happening. Why were they still hugging? And hugging so tightly! Qin Liang quickly let go and walked towards the door. He initially wanted to shake hands, but then thought better of it and simply hugged her instead!

"Mr. Ni, it's a pleasure to meet you."

At the entrance, Engineer Ni was a little confused: "I'm only forty years old, not old at all! Also, is this how Northwestern Polytechnical University welcomes students?"

"Of course, we... have just completed a new project. Mr. Ni, please come in and see our results!"

Engineer Ni stared wide-eyed as he watched the software appear on the computer screen and Qin Liang drag the various components with the mouse, transforming them into mechanical parts.

"Excellent, truly excellent! This is computer-aided design software. With it, our country's design capabilities can catch up with the West! However... to make computers play a greater role, we still need to enable them to display Chinese characters... Qin Liang, have you considered this direction?"

(End of this chapter)